Active Wellbeing
We want to hear what being active means to you, what stops you from being as active as you'd like to be and what would make it easier for you to be active.
The Active Wellbeing Project is a partnership with Havant Borough Council, Hampshire County Council, Horizon Leisure Trust, NHS, Energise Me and Community First to help our communities be fitter, happier and healthier.
We want to hear from you to inform our plans supporting people living in the borough of Havant to continue or become more physically active and improve your health and happiness.
Your views will be vital in making sure that what we do helps you and those in our area.
Comments you submit on the below activity will be published - if you would prefer to comment privately, please click here.
What do we mean by being active?
This can cover pretty much anything that gets you up and about - whether you're preparing for your next marathon or are part of your local sports club, all the way through to just enjoy gardening, walking to your local shop or getting up the stairs without losing your breath!
When thinking about your response to our questions, being active will mean different things to different people, and can be anywhere along this range of activities.
What do we want to find out?
All of the organisations in our partnership are working towards - amongst other priorities - supporting the people of our borough to be fitter, happier and healthier.
Your feedback on what being active means to you, what stops you from being as active as you'd like to be and what would make it easier will be vital in informing what comes next.
What will we do with your feedback?
Your feedback will be crucial in working out what we focus our work on in the next few years. We want to understand your views and feelings towards being active so that the ways in which we support our residents cover what they need, by hopefully removing some of the barriers that stop you from being active and give you some of the things that make it easier.
This will inform the strategy that we all work to, and the action plan of things we can do to get there!
We have some exciting activities for you to take part in - scroll down for more info ...
Phases
Feedback
Thank you to everyone who took part in the Active Wellbeing Strategy engagement - your feedback is extremely valuable and we had some fantastic input from across our communities.
We have now analysed the results and want to share the headline findings with you - scroll down to see some of the key messages we received through this engagement!
These will be used to inform our new Active Wellbeing Strategy, which will be put forward in the coming months - further details will be posted here.
How many people took part?
We had a fantastic response rate - alongside this Go Vocal page (details on the left), we heard from the following groups:
- Private survey - 182 submissions
- Paper feedback - 59 responses
- Our quickfire 'What would help you to be active' activity - 203 responses
- 9 satellite events held in our priority areas, with over 250 participants
- Our Flagship event with 35 attendees
- 6 school visits, hearing from over 150 pupils from Year 5 up to Year 11 and college students.
- 2 sessions with local youth groups
In the above, a minimum of two satellite events and one school visit were held in each of our priority areas.
What does being active mean to you?
We asked our participants what being active means to them, how active do they consider themselves to be and what they enjoy doing to be active.
The below word cloud provides an overview of wide spectrum of responses we received - it was clear throughout the engagement that being active has various different meanings for people in our community.
On one side of this spectrum, some indicated that they love being active - words such as 'health', 'social' and 'mental' were among the common words cited as positive reasons to be active, while a number of respondents highlighted what they enjoy doing - 'walking' was the most popular activity, with 'swimming', 'gym', 'running' and 'netball' not far behind.
In contrast, it was clear that it was viewed negatively be many people for a variety of reasons. Words such as 'injury', 'pain' and 'difficult' put forward in comments, while others refer to barriers such as 'working' or 'motivation'.
This was extremely valuable in evidencing the range of views and allowing us to understand how different people view being active.
What stops you from being as active as you'd like to be?
Physical health conditions was the most common reason raised by participants, as a health condition or injury prevents many from being active.
Many cited that affordability was a big barrier, with reference to gym memberships, class fees or equipment being too costly for them to access.
For active travel routes, participants raised concerns over the condition and location of routes in our borough for walking, running and cycling.
As we can all relate to, many stated that they aren't as active as they'd like to be as they can't find the time or have other responsibilities that prevent them from being active, such as childcare, employment or caring responsibilities.
By accessibility of activities, we mean the timing of activities (e.g. a lack of evening or weekend opportunities) or the location of facilities or classes (e.g. no opportunities to be active near where I live).
Information and awareness was also raised as a big issue, as people stated that they were unaware or unable to find out about what was on offer near to them.
What would make it easier for you to be active?
The main option that would make it easier for our residents to be active was to be able to access a social or welcoming / supportive group to be active.
This was followed by improving both the condition and availability of active travel routes, including methods such as walking, running and cycling.
On a similar note, a number of respondents highlighted that as walking was their preferred way of staying active, focus should be given to providing more walking opportunities. This included suggestions of organised walking groups, improved routes across our borough or better signposting of current routes.
As affordability was raised as a key barrier, cheaper or free activities was similarly raised as a potential support for many in being active.
The location and timing of activities was also raised as a common theme, with many stating that greater options for both would help them to be more active.
Reflecting a wider point around ensuring people know what it going on, the final common theme related to information, knowledge and awareness, with many saying that they would be more active if they had the right information for them about what to do and where to go.
What did young people say?
We engaged with a lot of young people aged between 9 and 25 years old to hear what they think - here's the key messages they raised ...
- Being active is a social activity that young people want to do with friends.
- Younger respondents were more likely to report undertaking a number of different activities or sports than older children, who were more likely to report one or none.
- School represented an opportunity for many to try different ways to be active and find their preferred way - many found the sport they loved through P.E. This experience wasn't universal though and further opportunities were often required.
- Young people were broadly positive about being active and enjoy playing sports, though this positivity did decline slightly in older age ranges.
- Favourite activities across age groups were football or swimming, while the range of activities reported was wide-ranging - volleyball, basketball and hockey up to drumming, motorbiking and a number of dancing types.
- Young people would rather be competitive than non-competitive, and do one sport regularly for a long time.
- They also reported that they'd rather be active outdoors than indoors, though there were more balanced views on whether they preferred their favourite sport or favourite video game.
Thank you to all of the schools who hosted sessions with us - we captured some extremely valuable feedback and had great fun aswell!
What happens next?
These findings are being used to shape and refine the Active Wellbeing Strategy.
This strategy is jointly owned by the following organisations and will be used to support our communities living fitter, happier and healthier lives:
- Havant Borough Council
- Hampshire County Council
- Horizon Leisure Trust
- NHS
- Energise Me
- Community First
Subject to being adopted, this landmark strategy marks the first time these organisations will work together in this collaborative and co-ordinated way to support residents in our borough.
The strategy is due to be considered in Summer 2025 - check back here for any updates on progress or visit www.havant.gov.uk/activewellbeing.
